Actua damage caused to Outlander PHEV batteries

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marta

Active member
Joined
Dec 31, 2012
Messages
31
In my quest for info on this exciting plug-in hybrid electric vehicle by Mitsubishi, I spend some time with Google translate and was able to find some slightly confusing translations. There were several Japanese articles that discussed the actual issues caused during the testing of the battery cells, and I wanted to share them with the members of the Outlander PHEV forum!

According to http://Reponse.jp, there were 2 mistakes that occurred.

The first was the setting of the strength of the test machine. The machine is set to vibrate the battery cell to test the forces it would encounter while riding along in the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. The settings was many times the default value, which caused too extreme of a vibration. This made some of the negative electrode plates in the battery cell become damaged which led to 'micro short circuits.'

The second error was when some of the battery cells were dropped. Due to the sketchy translating, I can't tell if they were dropped on purpose for a test, or if it was an accident.
"It's that was dropped in it or place the measurement equipment by hand it."
Each battery cell is approximately the size of a VHS tape and weighs about 1kg (2.2lbs). The drops were from about 1.1meters onto a concrete floor. When the drop was measured, a momentary force of approximately 400-500G (x the force of gravity) were placed on the battery cells. Many of the cells that were dropped were removed from production, but some continued down the line. During those extreme forces, a separator that divides the negative electrode from the positive electrode was 'bruised' and caused erosion which led to a short.

During a collision, G forces can by as high as 53G with a full frontal collision at 55km/hour speeds. Being dropped onto concrete exposed the cells to 6 times more forces.
 
That's interesting - mostly confusing due to the totally wacky translation, but also interesting. It still sounds like batteries were actually being dropped, although it also makes it sound like that was part of the screening process?

Either way, I'm glad Mitsubishi took the time, at great cost no doubt, to ensure the problem was fixed, and fixed right before they put the Outlander PHEV back into production!
 
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